INTRO: 1. “And God Remembered…” is found in a number of occasions in the Old Testament.
a. It’s said God remembered Noah when he and the animals was floating in the flood.
b. It’s said God remembered Abraham in the wake of Sodom & Gomorrah’s fall.
c. It’s said after Hannah had cried out to God that the Lord remembered her.
c. And here it is said that God remembered Rachael and her desire for children.
2. But what does it mean to say God remembers and what hope does this leave us today?
a. It doesn’t mean that God’s memory is faulty or prone to fail.
b. It doesn’t mean the the ancient of days suffers from a poor memory as a result of age or decline in health.
c. It doesn’t suggest that the all-knowing God is any less all-knowing.
3. But in it’s context I believe it’s meaning is clear.
a. When God remembers he focuses His attention on us and our need.
b. When God remembers he seems to accumulate all our prayers and re-live what He’s seen concerning our need. (pull our file)
Ex. 3:9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.
c. When God remembers he comes to a point of action on our behalf. (not sentiment)
4. A few things notice about God remembering Rachael here in our text.
5. When God remembered her…
a. He heard her…not just that day, but every prayer she had prayed for that need.
b. He answered her…miraculously turned this barren woman into a mother.
c. He removed her reproach…made it clear that although she had been delayed, she had not been forgtten.
6. Not only did Rachael need this blessing at this time so did Jacob.
a. For 14 years he had lived under the thumb of Rachael’s father who had taken advantage of him, lied to him & attempted to keep him near him for his own gain.
b. 14 years with no encounter with God.
c. No doubt Jacob may have began to feel as if God had forgotten him.
d. When others do you wrong… God hasn’t forgotten you.
e. When your prayers seem unanswered… God hasn’t forgotten you.
f. When days turn to years and little seems to change…God hasn’t forgotten you.
7. But when God remembers you he will also supply blessings within a blessing.
a. As you look back over those years that you thought God was inactive, you will soon discover that he was planting blessings within each blessing for you.
b. Because when God remembers you, he not only gives you what you have asked for, but he gives to you what you never thought to ask for.
c. You see we know the significance of this birth, this was not just any son, this was Joseph…the man of God that would secure Jacob and his family’s future and be used mightily by God.
d. He’s already working on your future.
8. I’m preaching this morning to someone whose heart’s cry is the same as the Psalmist
Ps. 106:4 Remember me, O LORD, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation;
a. Let’s declare it today… “Remember me, O LORD!”
b. I want to make it clear this morning to you… God remembers.
I. GOD REMEMBERS HIS OWN WORD
a. Man may forget their word and abandon their promises…but God will never.
b. There is nothing in your life that you can take hold of that is any surer than the Word of God.
c. Remember that it would be Joseph that would preserve the covenant for his generation, it wasn’t just an act of grace, it was God acting on his promises.
A. His Word is a SERIOUS MATTER TO GOD.
Is. 40:8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
1. It may merely be a scripture or a text to you, but it’s a promise to God.
2. We cannot even fathom the power of his word…all we see is a result of His word.
3. Jesus reminds us that the earth would pass away before God would allow one jot or title of his word to fail.
4. Stand on the Word…it is surer than the ground you walk upon.
B. HIS PROMISES HAS NO EXPIRATION DATE
1. Another thing about his Word is that it is eternal… it transcends time.
2. So if you hold to His word, it may not be fulfilled today… but it will be fulfilled.
ILL. Ask Abraham about his promise of his children being as the stars in the sky, it’s still being fulfilled today.
3. You may call this book old-fashioned, but I would tell you that to God it’s just as powerful as when he first spoke it.
Ps. 105:8 He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.
4. You can take Him at His word… the same word the early church did.
C. YOU CAN CALL HIS WORD TO HIS REMEMBRANCE
1. Just as the Psalmist did…
Ps. 119:49 Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.
2. There is no more powerful prayer than when you learn to pray the scriptures.
3. We are not so much reminding God, as we are grounding our prayers in that which will not pass away, that which will not fail.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
4. It will keep you from praying prayers that are amiss and keep you praying in God’s will.
5. We need not search the world over for the will of God, it’s in your hand.
II. GOD REMEMBERS HIS OWN, HIS CHILDREN
a. One thing is sure from this text is that God’s memory is set on his own people.
b. The list is a long one of those of His who it is said He “remembered.”
c. We think on that which is valuable to us… you are valuable to God!
ILL. W. Paul Jones tells the sad story of women who shared this story from her childhood as a polio victim: “When my mother left me in Sunday School, I always asked to wear her locket. She thought I like the locket. That wasn’t it at all. I knew I wasn’t worth coming back for, but I knew she would come back for her locket.” Her condition had made her feel of little value to anyone, even her mother. But she was wrong.
d. God will not forget you or forsake you because you are His.
A. He remembers us more than all of creation
1. Hear Jesus describe how valuable you are to the Father.
Mt. 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
2. He starts by showing us that the Father even values the sparrow that others sell for a single farthing…It doesn’t matter how much others value you, His value of you is already established.
3. He goes on to let us know that what others fail to take note of, such as the falling of the sparrow to the ground, He takes note of.
4. But on top of all that He testifies that we are of more value than many sparrows.
5. He even knows the number of the hairs of your head.
6. In the middle of it all he declares “Fear ye not therefore.”
7. Fear what? Abandonment.
B. He remembers our work for Him.
1. Not only will He not forget you, but He will not forget anything done in His name.
2. He comes with his reward in his hand.
3. What you do for God, He never forgets.
Heb. 6:10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
4. It’s easy to think at times that no one sees what we do for God, but Jesus instructs us to serve only with the Father’s eyes in mind and what we do in secret, the Father will reward openly.
C. He remembers our frailty
1. He knows how prone mankind is to weakness and failure, He will not forget that.
2. In confidence the Psalmist declares…
Ps. 103:14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
3. That’s why we can turn to Him in our stumbling and failures, because it didn’t take Him by surprise.
4. He’s quick to lift us up, He knows about this body of death we contend with.
5. Don’t let your failures push you away from God, let them push you to God.
III. GOD STORES UP TO REMEMBER
a. Who can fathom the mind of God, it is immeasurable and beyond our comprehension.
b. However, God has used His word to draw some mental images, some analogies of how his memory works on our behalf.
c. The Word suggests that He stores up or keeps things to bring before Him at a later time.
A. He keeps our tears
1. The scripture testifies that He keeps our tears are in His bottles
Ps. 56:8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
2. You’ve never wasted a tear that you’ve cried out to God with.
3. Every tear of frustration, of grief or loss, of repentance, of futility…they are still there.
4. He hasn’t forgotten what you’ve been through.
5. What others didn’t see…the nights of tears…God not only saw, but still sees.
B. He keeps our prayerS
1. Our prayers are kept before Him.
Rev. 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
2. You’ve not wasted your prayers…God has stored them up for that day when He remembers you.
3. It has a place before the throne of God.
4. It is an aroma to Him, cannot forget them.
5. A pleasant aroma…He takes joy in you turning to Him.
C. He keeps a book of remembrance.
1. Does he need it…no, but we need to know it’s there.
Mal. 3:16-17 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
2. For those that “feared the LORD.”
3. Your case is well documented.
4. The courts on earth may not give you a fair hearing… but your case is settled in heaven.
5. He has not forgotten you… there’s coming a day just as was in Rachael’s day when it will be said of you… “And God remembered…”
CONCLUSION: Don't fret when prayers seem to go unanswered, when nothing seems to change. Just remember that God remembers.
